Should Vertigo Patients Avoid Air Travel

I meet many interesting people while traveling. For both business and personal reasons I travel a lot. As I was always eager to speak to new people, i will someway start a conversation that had lead to many interesting information’s.

Sometimes vertigo happens to be the common topic. Many people tell me that either by traveling air or car makes their vertigo worse.

There are no certain conditions that cause vertigo and the cause is not always known. What does vertigo mean? It means spinning or whirling that is due to the disturbance in the balance of equilibrium. Vertigo is not considered as a disease, it’s a mere symptom.

The major cause of vertigo is because of a disorder in vestibular system. It can also be due to some problem with the central vestibular system. One of vertigo’s symptom is dizziness. But it do not mean that everyone with dizziness has vertigo.

I have also noted that people who have a problem with height do not fear flying. Many people link vertigo to fear of height due to the Alfred Hitchcock movie. This is linked because both the symptoms are similar dizziness and nausea.

There are different types of vertigo but the most common type of vertigo is BPPV. The onset is usually sudden and tends to last for less than a minute. It is almost always caused by sudden head movements.

Symptoms can include: nystagmus (shaking of the eye), nausea, vomiting and sweating. The attacks can stop or improve after a few weeks or months. However in some cases, they can persist for longer. Your doctor can correctly diagnose you and recommend special head and neck exercises to help prevent the onset of vertigo.

Most people who have this type of vertigo have no issue with the movement of travel but rather, the positioning of their head on the seat. This is what could bring on symptoms for these types of sufferers.

Vertigo can temporarily triggered by alcohol. Therefore, alcohol should be avoided when you fly or drive.

Although not as common, psychogenic vertigo is vertigo caused by a psychological disorder such as anxiety or panic disorder. If suffering from this disorder, traveling could initiate or make symptoms worse.

he motion of travel can affect the parts of the inner ear that help control balance. This happens most when traveling by boat but can by auto and plane travel.

Like vertigo, the onset of symptoms is quick. They include: nausea, dizziness, headache, cold sweats, hyperventilation (which could lead to faintness) and usually vomiting.

Motion sickness can avoided by doing the following while traveling No Smoking, no drinking, not reading while traveling and getting some fresh air.

There are many medicines that are available to treat motion sickness. But these medicines might cause drowsiness in children and infants may agitate.